NFL Scandals: Everything You Should Know Before the First Kickoff

Now that we’re just days away from the kickoff of the 2014 NFL season, it’s important to be caught up on all the latest quandaries and ethical dilemmas that surround the league — not out of any particularly negative interest or focus, but because the discussion about the league around the NFL is always one that is always informed by the fact that there are many things about the game of football that are decidedly coarse when it comes to thinking of players and owners as actual people. People that are subject to an incredibly violent game, who we, the fans, watch as they suffer life-altering injuries as they work under a Byzantine system of punishments.

The world that the league would like to live in and the world that the league actually lives in come into hostile contact every once in a while, and it’s important to be knowledgeable about what’s informing the discourse around the league. Consider this a primer for everything controversial that might be brought up during the games, before the games, and after the games.